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Published: April 20th 2015
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We do not normally take tours but if you want to visit Manu the only way is on a tour. We had four free days and we debated what to do, visit Lima, Lake Titicaca or the rain forest. We found a tour that fit our schedule so on Monday morning we flew to Puerto Maldonado from Cusco. We were met at the airport by a driver and a tour representative. We drove on a paved road for a hour and a half and on a dirt road for forty minutes. They gave us a fried rice lunch, the rice was wrapped in a large leaf. The dirt road was washed out in spots but the driver just drove through the water even though it looked deep to me. The road ended and we took a boat taxie across the river, our guide Jose meet us at the other side and we took a public taxie for another hour on a dirt road. This driver drove like a bat out of hell except when we crossed a creek, then he slowed down to drive over boards. There must have been 25 to 35 creek crossings with boards across the creeks, the
driver managed to cross over all the boards but I was a little nervous. The road ended at another river, a boat with a driver and an attendant were waiting for us. The boat was a long canoe with a tarp as the roof cover. I thought it was going to be warm in the rainforest so I was dressed in shorts. The river was cold and I would have frozen but they gave me two blankets. The river part of the trip was four hours and it was dark for the last part of the trip. We saw lights on shore and we pulled up to our lodge. The lodge has 24 cabins but Mark and I were the only guests.
The lodge has no electricity so we followed our guide who lit the way with a flashligh. Dinner was waiting for us and it included hot soup which really hit the spot since I was so cold. After dinner we went to bed because we had to get up at 4:30 and meet at 5:00.
The Manu National Park and Biosphere covers 6.2 million acres and is home to 1,090 bird species, 15,000 flowering plant species
and 13 species of monkeys. Nomad indigenous people also live in the rainforest.
The next morning we take a boat ride downriver to the Macaw Lick Project. We climb up to a blind which has chairs so we can watch the Macaw birds eat the clay. We also enjoyed our breakfast in the blind. I started taking notes listing the birds and animals we saw during our time in Manu.
We returned to the lodge for lunch and some relaxing time. In the afternoon we hiked a network of trails and we spotted monkeys and birds. Dinner is by candlelight. After dinner our camp is visited by a Tapir her name is Vanessa and I feed her an apple. She has been visiting this camp for 13 years, she has scars made by jaguars on her back.
The next morning starts at 5:00, after breakfast we go by boat to Oxbow Lake. We see a three toed sloth and various birds. After lunch we hike to a canopy tower. I am afraid of heights but decided I don't want to miss anything so up I go. From the tower we watch the monkeys make their way home
for the evening.
Our last day we are up early again to travel back down the river and make our way to the airport and back to Cusco. We enjoyed our time in Manu and we liked being the only people at the lodge. The company we used was Inka Natura Travel. This experience has turned Mark and I into bird watchers.
Below is a list of the birds and animals we saw.
Red & Green Macaw
Blue & Yellow Macaw
Blue Headed Macaw
Yellow Crowned Parrot
White Bellied Parrot
Orange Checked Parrot
Black Vulture
Black Spider Monkeys
Long Nosed Bats
White Lined Bats
Hummingbirds
Sun tail Hawk
King Vulture
White Bellied Parrots
Parakeets
Swallows
Lowland Tapir
Brown Capuchin Monkeys
Masked Crimson Tanager
Hoatzin
Grater Ani Cuckoo
Social Fly Catcher
Woodpecker grey Breasted Martins
Titi Monkeys
Horned Screamer
White Chickens
Saddled Back Tamarin
Brown Throated There Toed Sloth
Shock-Headed Capuchin Monkeys
Large-Headed Capuchin Monkeys
Colombian Red Howler Monkeys
Squirrel Monkeys
Snow Egret
Little Blue
Heron
Slate-Colored Hawk
Amazonion Pygmy Owl
Blue Banded Toucan
Channel- Bilked Toucan
Green Kingfisher
Rufus Motmot
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Stan Skiba
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Manu Adventure
What a wonderful and inspiring adventure. Looks like it was not for the meek since you were the only guests there. Would have been nice to compare notes with other visitors but it appears you had their undivided attention there. Had to put you back into a primordial state of minds. I think it was better than going to Lake Titicaca, which is a totally different type of experience. Continue to have a wonderful time and enjoy your trip and learning. Quite a bit of birds there. Did you know that one spring at the wet lands in my backyard I counted 32 speices of birds one morning while having coffee.